The Animus Winds is a composition for flute and electroacoustic sound. Thematically, the composition explores an opposition of two perceptions: the sensual experience of wind against a personification of wind as a supernatural force. The electroacoustic sound recolors and reshapes recordings of wind and flutes, such that flutes take on characteristics of the wind, and wind takes on both musical and vocal qualities. There is also a dramatic schema, in which the flute takes the role of a person who is at times drawn into the natural spirit of the wind, and at other times strongly confronts its more hostile animus.
Touché is a single movement duo-concertante in a toccata style. Two clarinet soloists are united in a musical contest, between themselves and together in opposition to an ensemble of synthetic clarinets automated from computer software. The toccata paradigm emphasizes the immediacy of touch upon the instruments, which traditionally serves to allow idioms of virtuosic performance to take the lead in determining musical form. Touché also takes the idea of musical touch to a yet more detailed level, that of articulation, the specific qualities of attack upon and the subsequent shaping of the musical tones. Here, therefore, the emphasis is on how the tones themselves are touched. The synthetic clarinets in particular emphasize these articulations, being made artificially sharp and separated, or more rarely, artificially dulled. There are also important shaping gestures, such as sudden swellings of tone with pointed conclusions, that suggest the rhythmic interchange of swordplay, notably fencing—en-garde.
Arched Interiors II (2008) is a musical composition for piano and electro-acoustically transformed sound. The mode of performance for the piano involves bowing and scraping the strings to produce timbral modulations shaped directly by the physical gesture. These sound-gestures provide both the motivic foundation for the composition and the recorded source audio for development of the electroacoustic sound. The original version of Arched Interiors was written in 1991 for Margaret Leng Tan, and premiered by her in 1992 in the ORF Funkhaus Wien. This original version, as well as another, Double Arched Interiors for two pianos without electroacoustic sound, included additional passages focused on complex plucking techniques.
A fixed media sound collage, whose title was granted permission by Milton Babbitt.
"while the earth is still turning"
This was written in collaboration with pianist Sonya Belaya.
Composed for New Music On The Point 2017 festival.
Petit Hommage a Rene Magritte for fixed media
Petit Hommage a René Magritte for fixed media (2017) is inspired by “L’Usage de la Parole,” a painting by the Belgian Surrealist artist René Magritte (1898-1967). Famous for his approach in depicting every day, recognizable images in unusual juxtapositions within a single work, the painting centers around a cut-out of notated music in the shape of a person wearing a bowler hat. The figure is situated on top of a dull pink box, mysteriously inscribed with the words “Le savoir” (knowledge), which drifts upon what appears to be choppy, rose-colored waters amidst a dark, menacing sky. Petit Hommage a René Magritte for fixed media combines transformations of the notated music, particularly the I6 inversion, in dialogue with a variety of other sounds related (and sometimes unrelated) to the disparate elements found in Magritte’s painting. In the central section, the audio was extracted from an interview with René Magritte describing his thoughts on poetic content in his art: “Yes, in fact…eh… I believe that there is a familiar feeling to poetry, and this familiar feeling to poetry would be what I would call, for simplicity’s sake, the ‘tourist’ feeling…who will look far for poetry.” The audio clip ends at this point; but in the original, Magritte continues: “…and the poetry they find they know it before, it is a familiar poem given by very strange things, so that the familiar can become the occasion to discover the poetry which is not familiar– unknown poetry.” Special thanks to Monique Osorio for the pre-recorded piano sample and Jennifer La Rue for providing the English translation. Duration: 2 minutes. Note: It is recommended, but not required, to project an image of René Magritte’s “L’Usage de la Parole” during playback in a darkened hall.
A short fixed media work inspired by a surrealist painting by Rene Magritte
An electroacoustic music composition and dance collaboration
Star Map (2014) is an electroacoustic piece for flute and quadraphonic playback that is inspired by the Forsyth Petroglyph, a rock with carvings that was first discovered in Forsyth County, Georgia in the early 1800s. The carvings consist of circles and other designs that are thought to be astronomical in nature, representing the constellations Draco, Scorpio, and a fragmenting comet. A comet event occurred around 3300 BC, and the carvings may represent this event due to the presence of other symbols that could be interpreted as the Cosmic Crocodile from Mayan mythology, which was decapitated, leading to a massive flood. The comet impact of 3300 BC caused tsunamis that destroyed coastal civilizations of the time. The piece is in three sections: the first features the constellations Scorpio, Draco and Sagittarius, and more specifically, the red giant star Antares in the Scorpio constellation (evoked by the drones and flute centered around the pitches B and C) and x-ray flares sent out by the constellation Sagittarius. The second section illustrates the comet breaking into fragments, and the manipulated recorded flute signifies our perspective of time. The third section returns to the environment of constellations from the first section.